Writer who fought gender inequality in language dies
Kate Swift, a writer and editor who wrote the groundbreaking books Words and Women and The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing, died at eighty seven on Saturday of stomach cancer.
Words and Women emphasized the loaded gender terms present in every level of American culture, from "all men are created equal" to "land where our fathers died." Other norms taken to task were the perennial tagging of women by either Miss or Mrs., and the journalistic habit of describing women as pert, dimpled, or cute.
Swift's work took hold: you don't see very many references to "firemen" or "stewardesses" any more, and generally, women are described without affixing their marital status to the beginning of their name.
Now that we live in more politically correct times, it may be harder to see exactly what Swith was up against and how much she managed to change our language. It's a true testament to her legacy that many people have implemented her changes without knowing her name — a new standard now as permanent as the one she worked to undo.
Comments ( 11 )
What's all that crap about the British being repressed? we're not in the fucking Victorian era sitting giggling at each others ankles.
And that 9% might mean something if it was given some context, where the hell this statistic came from and how high it is in other countries. On it's own it's just trivial.
"I highly doubt that a majority of students on any college campus, even a highly conservative one, disapprove of casual or pre-marital sex."
Definitely false. Students at BYU would disapprove of casual or pre-marital sex by an overwhelming margin.
Mormons! HA. I think he meant a normal college campus.
I graduated from Texas A&M University. That kid needs to get out more because there is as much sex going on all around him as any other university. The conservative nutcases are very vocal on that campus, but hardly speak for the student body in general. I dated an RA whose job description included giving out condoms in emergencies. His supply was always running out.
BTW, here here on ER's comment. The British are not the stereotypes we see in movies. In my experience British men are the opposite of sexually repressed.
who wrote this? sounds like it was written by someone barely literate in english.
I really cannot stand the constant heavy-handed labelling going on throughout this piece. Xenophobic/ Christian nut-case/ repressed and hypocritical Brits... It's oh-so depressing to hear such a negative, judgemental tone. Some maturity, please.
Like a couple of other comments on here I just wanted to say that it's not the first time I've read an article calling the British repressed and it's as far from true as you can get. Everyone here (expect some religious types) is having sex, and they are all open about it.
Perhaps they worked the other way. That is they were checking to see that married immigrants were not virgins. This isn't any nicer but it is more logical. I can imagine our own INS getting ideas from these disclosures.
To me, it seems more likely that this came out of some fear/hysteria that the women were contriving stories about arranged marriages to circumvent British immigration policy. If women coming in to get married were "supposed" to be virgins and NOT pregnant, you can see some asshole gov't official deciding that a vaginal exam might be a good way to catch those who are lying about the whole arranged marriage bit. I seriously doubt the test was ever conceived as a way of keeping out "immoral ladies" as the writer suggests was surely the case. Just to be clear, I agree that this is reprehensible, I just don't think Hooksexup touches on any relevant points.
I don't the history of Asian immigrants to Britain, but in the US at least, Asian women immigrants were mostly sex slaves and prostitutes at first and among the yellow fear was the fear of "immoral ladies".
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